


Quinn: Wrath

by EgoDominusTuus



Series: Lady in the Lake [2]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Fury, Quinn is angry, Rescue Mission, Revenge, Violence, War time, pre game, soldier boy, war prisoner, wrath - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 07:45:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6648550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EgoDominusTuus/pseuds/EgoDominusTuus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quinn's sin is Wrath, and he's fine with that... if it means he gets to see Nora alive and smiling on the other side.</p><p>--</p><p>This is the chapter Atom Bomb, Baby in the story A River Runs Through It, from Quinn's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quinn: Wrath

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A River Runs Through It](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6264175) by [EgoDominusTuus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EgoDominusTuus/pseuds/EgoDominusTuus). 



I knew that something was wrong. I wasn't sure _how_ I knew. My world was already tumultuous at best, and falling apart at worse. I hadn't forgiven myself for what had happened to Silas King. When I closed my eyes at night, I could still see the battlefield, marred with broken bodies, our boys and the enemies alike. It was funny - in death, we all bled red. It was only in dying that you were brought the stark awareness that we were all the same on the inside, regardless of our beliefs.

  But I couldn't think about that when we were fighting - the only thing that I could think about was the fact that I needed to keep a keen eye, I needed to stay above, stay ahead, and ignore any pain that rocked through my body until the battle was over. I could hear Silas in the back of my head at the thought, _you could always just avoid the bullets to begin with_.

   _But that's no fun, Sil_.

  God, but I loved him. And more than that, I had another person to fight for. Nora Fortune, sweet Lady Fortune.

  I was thinking of them both when I'd run ahead - and I was hearing Silas scream my name. Once, long, loud, low... and he pushed me to the side and I heard the explosion.

  And then things were a blurring flash of color and pain; I forgot my decorum, I forgot to pretend that Silas King wasn't my soul. I was screaming his name, and I was slicing and burning my hands trying to peel him out of power armor that had collided with a missile.

  And it wasn't working.

  And he wasn't moving.

  And the world was a stream of red and pain, and I only really remembered the full details of it in my nightmares.  
   The General himself was the only reason that our squad had been stationed at the hospital where Silas laid in a coma, and Nora and I took turns watching out as the other snuck into his room at night. I couldn't leave him in there alone, laying so silently. His beautiful face was a mass of swathed bandages and blood, and I couldn't see his blue eyes... and it felt like I'd been cut off from the very sky, itself. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.

  I couldn't feel anything, save for the warm presence that was Nora Fortune's arms around me - telling me it was okay if I needed to cry. Telling me that he would be okay. Telling me that Silas would have never forgiven himself if he hadn't saved me.

  And then her presence was gone, because she was called away... and I didn't have her words to lull me to sleep at night. So, I did what any normal man would do.

  I stopped sleeping.

  The world was a blur of duty and sneaking into Silas' room whenever I had the chance, while doing my best to catch word of what Nora was up to. She'd only been gone for a few weeks when I heard that she was deployed into battle with her new sniper, River Wren Malcolm.

  I didn't hear back from her squad. There weren't reports, there weren't any incoming radio transmissions about the battle. I lied to Silas King, laying in a coma, and told him that everything was fine - I think that I lied to him so I would believe it.

  I didn't though... and when Petyr, one of their squad, came in half eviscerated and broken... I knew that something was wrong.

  I spilled silently into the room where he spoke to his doctors - where he half moaned their location, the fact that the entire squad had been mowed down.

  My heart froze then, and winter would have been jealous of the chill that spilled through me - but he continued on.

  Everyone but River.

  Everyone but Nora.

  The Chinese had taken them to a nearby bunker instead. And he _had_ to get out of the bed to go and find them - he _had_ to save them. But then Petyr had passed out from pain, and the doctors didn't have to argue with him about his condition and inability to go anywhere. I spilled into the room before the two men had a chance to say anything else, and there must have been something in my expression, because they paled as though they'd just received news of the nuclear bombs dropping.

  "I'm going to get her. If I come back and find that a word of this was breathed so that Silas King could hear it, I'll shoot you both. Two bullets. No remorse." I didn't recognize my tone, or the way that my body seemed to be bubbling over with icy fire that was eating away at everything that I was.

  Silas laid in a bed, and he might never wake up.

  Nora was taken captive, and I _knew_ what the enemy would do to a proud, strong, beautiful woman like her.

  I wasn't waiting for orders - the General himself could oust me from the army. I wasn't letting this happen - I wasn't letting them take _her_ , too.

  "I'll get her back, Silas, I promise."

 

-

 

 Somehow, my squad could tell that I was going on a warpath - and instead of trying to stop me, they met me at the door with their weapons strapped and their gear ready. I could have told them I didn't need them, but arrogance and pride were not my sin. Wrath would lead me on the path to Hell, and I didn't care, as long as I took the men who had taken Nora with me. I kissed Silas once, softly on his scarred cheek before I'd left, and I hoped that it wasn't the last kiss that I'd ever give him.

  But as long as I saved Nora, it didn't matter. He was laying in that fucking hospital bed because of me, and I wasn't going to make him wake up without her soft green eyes and her sweet, clean scent.

  We were lucky that we weren't stationed far from the battle zone where Nora had last been seen. According to Petyr, and the report that he was going to give to General King as soon as he woke from his surgery, the base that they'd taken her to was only a few clicks away from the battlefield itself. I'd been in the area a few times - my squad and I were one of the best.

We knew where to look, and there was no hesitation in me when we charged through the body ridden field. No one had bothered to pick up the corpses yet - Petyr had crawled, half gutted for nearly a quarter mile before a scout had found him to bring him back to us. I didn't look down at the bodies on the ground; I didn't care.

  There was only one face that I wanted to see, and if it wasn't smiling and breathing when I did, the Chinese were going to learn what pain truly was.

  I didn't know the man that I was, in those moments. It was something built of fury and ferocity, of years of pain and fear that had collated into some kind of monster. My Father had never broken me, and he'd never broken my smile... but he taught me what a monster was, and he'd shown me that pain was only a weakness if you let it be. When we approached the base and I felt a bullet rip through my shoulder, I charged forward instead of falling down.

  My squad charged with me, and the aim of my pistol was true when I put a bullet between the man's eyes. I wanted Nora - I could almost _feel_ that she was somewhere inside of there, waiting for me. I'd promised Silas, silently, while he laid _sleeping_ in his bed that I'd watch out for her until he woke up. I wasn't going to break that promise, and I wasn't going to lose her.

  I couldn't. There were so few things in this world that I loved, so few things that made me feel like, just maybe, there'd been a purpose to everything that I'd gone through in my childhood. Nora was one of those things, with her soft smile and her sweet scent. She was hardened grace, and proud perfection, and I couldn't stand the thought of these bastards trying to strip her of that for information.

  I knew that they'd only be worse because she was a woman. And if River was still alive... my gut clenched at the thought - I didn't know the sniper woman. Maybe, after this was all over, I'd care to get to know her... but for now, she was just a danger to Nora, because I knew that Nora would do everything that she could to keep her safe.

  I didn't want to think about what _everything_ could be - Nora would give it all, to the last drop. _Everything_ could leave me and Silas with **_nothing_ **.

  I couldn't picture that in my mind, I couldn't let the image overtake the fury that was burning inside of me. If anything, it fueled it, until I was moving forward and shooting at the Chinese without question, without pity or mercy. I felt more bullets rain down on me. One attacked me with a sword, and I raised my arm. My flesh didn't deflect the blow, but it stopped it from cutting me down.

  My bullet stopped him from trying any further.

  It was only when I approached a door, Chinese scribbled atop it, that I knew I was going to get some answers. There were three men guarding it - that meant that something, or _someone_ important had to be inside.

  Two pops firing off behind me, and I charged forward. My gun needed to be reloaded, and I didn't have the fucking time. Instead, I took the man in the face with the butt of it - and though he pulled a knife and drug it along my ribs, I kept at it. Hit after hit, until he was screaming and falling beneath me. And another hit, and the screaming stopped.

  My face was a hot wash of crimson and blood, death and fury painted across my countenance like a scarlet letter... and I didn't care.

  I'd just beaten a man to death, and all that I did was straighten myself up and put another clip into my gun. Better still, my squad didn't give me a second glance, more than a nod of respect. They'd never seen this side to me - they'd never seen me so blind with rage that I was absolutely apathetic to the horrors that I was committing.

  But they knew Nora - they knew Nora, and her sweet smile. Nora, who would have died for us all, if it was to keep us safe.

  Nora, who Silas and I both loved so deeply. And the men knew that, too, whether they ever said it aloud or not. They knew that, and they loved their Captain, and they wouldn't let anything happen to his sweetheart.

  I wouldn't let anything happen to _our_ sweetheart.

  I wiped blood from my gaze and kicked the door open, leveling my gun at the chest of a man as I did so.

  He didn't have time to scramble for his weapon - my legs carried me forward in three quick strides, and my gun pointed at his head, the barrel not wavering.

When I spoke, my voice was so icy, so void of emotion that it sounded nothing like me, even to my own ears. "Where is Nora Fortune."

  The man had the audacity to laugh, and I lowered my gun before he'd had a chance to take a breath, shooting him in the stomach. His eyes widened in pain, a low scream ripping from him.

 "Stomach wounds take hours to actually kill you.” My voice held eternal winter, and there was no pity in my tone for his pain. “It's a slow, painful death. The burning that you feel now? That’s your body trying to _numb_ the pain out. It will only get worse from here." I raised my gun again, leveling it at his head. "Don't think that I won't drag you out of here to that fucking battlefield that you left behind. The bugs are crawling and the sun is hot. They'll go into your gut and eat you from the inside out, and I'll watch it happen. I'll make sure you feel every last ounce of pain." My free hand came forward, finding the wound on his torso, fingers digging in, pressing until he screamed again. "Where. Is. Nora?"

  "American Pig." He sputtered the word out, and his grin was stained with blood when he smiled at me - if I'd nicked a lung, I didn't have as much time as I wanted to extract answers from him. "You won't recognize your pretty girlfriend anymore. She's smiling now - a beautiful smile. And her bitch of a friend? Well, we showed her what real cock is. Your cunt screamed for her, you know? She--" My fist slammed forward before he had time to speak, hitting sharp at the wound that I'd inflicted. He doubled over in pain, and I caught him the nose with my knee - I didn't take the time to see if I'd broken anything. Instead, I jerked him up by his hair pressing my gun under his chin and forcing his gaze a few inches from my own.  

  "Tell me where she is."

  "Or what, American? You can do nothing to me."

  I shifted my gun to my other hand, releasing his hair long enough to pull a knife from my hip. "I will gut you and feed you your own entrails."

  "You have a code of ethics, you-" I let the knife slide home slowly against the wound that I'd already inflicted.

  "I will open you up, if you don't start talking. **Now** ." And to prove that I was telling the truth, I let the knife press an inch deeper and started to slip upward. I watched the fear _finally_ sink home into his gaze.

  "Wait, wait! I'll-" I cut his words off with a scream of pain, because I twisted the knife in his gut. He whimpered, and the sound of it scalded across my skin. It felt _good_ , and a part of me knew that it shouldn't have.

  "No games. No delays. Take me to her." I pulled the knife from his wound, wiping it on his shirt slowly. My gun shifted, and I stepped behind him, pointing it at the back of his head.

  "Come. Quickly." And he began to move. I think, somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought that I was going to let him go. He thought that, if he took me to her quick enough, he could get treatment for the wound on his torso, the entrails that threatened to peek out at the cut I'd made.

He was a fool; he'd touched Nora. He'd hurt her. I could _hear_ it in his voice, when he was talking about making her smile. He was a dead man walking - he just didn't realize that he was living on borrowed time while he led me to my Fortune.

  We stepped down the hallway, and the sound of gunfire still echoed in my ears - it was nearly numbed out by a sharp ringing noise though. I could tell that we were getting close, my heart was leaping in my chest, only being tampered down by the sensation of fury and antipathy washing over me in droves. Finally, he came to a door.

  "She is here. They both are. Let me go now, I need-"

  "Open the door." I cut his desperate plea off with an order. Sharp and rapt enough that he listened, as though I was his Commanding Officer. I'd always had it in me to rise in the ranks of the Army, and I knew that. I had the charm, the charisma, the presence... but it was never anything that I'd wanted. I had Silas as my Commander, Nora to lead. I didn't need or seek out command or station. I just wanted to help people.

  I just wanted to _save_ Nora, and I'd trade away my soul to do it.

  "And then you will let me go?" I said nothing, pressing the barrel of my pistol to the back of his skull instead. He let out a low sound, a desperate mewling sound. A man begging for his life, a man who knew that he was staring into the face of death.

  He opened the door, and as soon as it swung on the frame, I pulled the trigger. I didn't try to catch his body as it slid to the floor - I didn't care. For just a moment, I stood... and felt...

  Nothing.

  Nothing, for the man who had just whimpered for his life. Nothing for the man that I could have taken alive. I could have brought him to base to pull information from - I could have done many things. I had a code of ethics that should have kicked in, should have kept me from gunning down an unarmed man who was literally incapable of defending himself... but that code didn't kick in. The only thing that I felt was the white hot rage at the thought, the audacity that he had to touch Nora. The fact that he'd _said_ her name, had it on his filthy tongue? The fact that he brought me to this room that was clearly a station for torture?

  I felt nothing but a void, and a spiraling jolt of burning satisfaction at the fact that one of the men who had touched her was erased. If I'd had the time, I'd have put another bullet into his head.

But I didn't have the time, because my unseeing eyes finally came into focus, and they saw a young woman, nude and strapped to a table. A chair faced away from me, and a snarl spilled from my lips. I kicked the body in front of me to the side, holstering my pistol and stepping forward.

" _Where_ is Nora?" The woman on the table had brown eyes wide with fear and pain, and I could tell that part of that emotion had to do with me. Even I could hear the sound of my voice - I sounded nothing like myself. I didn't care - I'd apologize to her later. For now, I only had one priority, and that priority was on the end of her trembling gaze, which slid to the chair facing away from me.

  Everything inside of me _stopped._

  Nora was in the chair, and she wasn’t moving.

   ~~Nora’s lips trembled when she gave me her first kiss, and I felt something in my heart click into place.~~

  Nora was in the chair, and blood poured down her front like a waterfall of crimson.

   ~~Nora’s laugh was soft when she saw the way I blushed in front of Silas, and she looked at him with warm green eyes, finally seeing him the way that I saw him.~~

  Nora was in the chair, and her face was split from ear to ear, her beautiful smile stretched wide and stitched messy.

   ~~Nora was beautiful when we were out on patrol, late at night. The moon caught in her hair, and she let me slip my arms around her for a soft embrace in the silence.~~

   Nora was in the chair, and I wished to fuck that the man I’d just shot was still alive. I’d killed him too damn slow, and there wasn’t enough bullets or time in the world to make him pay for what he’d done to her.

   ~~I~~ ~~_loved_ Nora, just as sure as I loved Silas. And I could see us all together, after the war. Together and _happy_ ~~ ~~, in a world that we’d saved.~~

  Nora was in the chair, and all that I wanted was to break into tears, but my burning eyes wouldn’t give me what I wanted - they refused, stubborn, to let the traitorous bits of moisture fall.

Nora was in the chair, and all that I wanted was to be by her side - I was too late, I was already too late… but I needed to know if I was so late that…

  I needed to know if she…

   ~~I refused to believe that she was dead.~~

  I ran forward without thinking, without taking the time to close the door behind me. It was careless, and I knew it. They could have come in and put a bullet in the back of my skull, and I wouldn’t have noticed. My attention was all for Nora, for her pale, cool skin as I slid my finger along her blood drenched neck. I didn’t remember that anyone else was in the room, let alone the building with us. I closed my eyes, and I _prayed_.

  After a second, I felt my body tremble and then my shoulders slump in relief - a pulse. It was still strong, thick - strong like my sweet Nora. Of course she wouldn’t let this bring her close to death, she was too _good_ for that.

  “Nora… Nora, baby.” My voice was a low whisper, a burning ache. I needed her to know that I was here - I wished that I could tell her that I was sorry for taking so long. “Nora, you have to wake up. I’m here…” I wanted to cup her cheek, to kiss her - to do anything that I _couldn’t_ do because of her injuries. The best that I could manage was to shift to her restraints, murmuring softer now. “Baby, I’m so sorry… I’m here now. It’s me, It’s Quinn… I’m here.”

  The restraints clicked open, and she shifted forward, her body rolling bonelessly - I was thankful that her mind was kind enough to let her faint. Whatever hack job they’d done at stitching her, it didn’t look painless.

  It didn’t matter though - she was alive, and she was just as fucking beautiful to me as the day that I’d first seen her… and I was going to burn this fucking place to the ground with everyone alive and screaming inside for doing this to her.

  I shifted as she fell, pulling my jacket off and wrapping it around her. I was careful when I brought her up, standing with her taller frame curled against my chest. I felt it as she shifted - as she nuzzled against me and inhaled; I could feel the pain pouring through her body at the motion, but her green eyes opened… and it was the most beautiful fucking thing I could have seen in that moment.

  “Quinn..?” All I could hear was the pain that it caused her to talk. I pulled her closer to me, my strong arms demanding that she was quiet - I wasn’t going to say it though. I wouldn’t put it past her to do it just because I’d said she couldn’t, even in this state. Instead, I let my green gaze flick to her own, my brows lowered, my eyes shining softly with tears that I couldn’t quite manage.

“I’m here. I’ll always find you.” A promise - to both of us. I’d go into Hell itself for her and Silas - I’d never, ever stop trying. As though my promise was enough, I felt her take a deep, shuddering breath before slipping back into a pain-induced sleep. It was all well enough; she didn’t need to see the Hell that was going on outside.

  She didn’t need to see the Hell that I was going to bring for every stitch and every cut on her body.

  I let the chill of my emotions wash over me for a moment, bathe me in a layer of fury before I let myself get too far into the ache that I felt at having Nora soft and limp in my arms. I would have time for that later - I would have time to relive the horrors that I committed here, and maybe even feel guilty of them. For now, all I wanted was to punish everyone who had touched her, and bring this place to pebbles and ash. Slowly, I pulled my gaze up from the woman in my arms and focused on the other presence in the room. I _did_ feel a twinge of guilt that I'd completely forgotten her presence, but it was quashed by my desire for answers.

 "You're River, right?" I could feel the way that my voice shook, because it vibrated my chest. My arms clenched tighter around Nora - I didn't want her to hear me like this, so furious that it was quivering through my tone. I'd never spoken like this around her... she'd never seen this part of me. At the table, River seemed unable to speak - her full lips worked for a moment, and finally she just settled on a nod. I shifted forward, my guilt finally crawling up my throat and into my mind - I'd left her chained on that table without a second thought. I kept Nora tight in my arms and shifted to work, getting the chains from River's body within a few minutes.

  "I can send someone in after you." I twitched my gaze back to Nora - I would have helped River more, but I needed to get her out of here... and I needed to take care of the people who had put her in this state to begin with. She needed to be _far_ away from this place before I let that happen. On a bird, back to the hospital... back to Silas.

  "Who did this to you both?" I felt the fury spark in my chest at the question, chasing away the tenderness that I felt for the woman in my arms; or perhaps it was something altogether different. My anger was wrapping around that emotion, that love, and refusing to move... it would protect it now, all teeth and claws. Either way, I was ready to give myself over to it, if it meant avenging Nora.

  "You just killed one of them - the other looks just like him. Ji. His twin." I caught a flurry of motion out of the corner of my eye, and realized that River was standing. It was only then that I took her state of being into mind. There were bruises and cuts all along her pale frame, and the blood that slicked at her thighs spoke a volume of words for questions that I would never ask. My heart dropped into my stomach - I hadn't even taken the time to care. Nora cared about her, clearly. River caught her swaying form against the table that she'd been strapped to, and I saw shame and determination pouring through her gaze - chasing behind it was an echo of my own fury at the people responsible.

 I couldn't leave her like that. It was a trick to shift Nora in my arms, but I pulled my black tank from my frame and tossed it to River - I couldn't save her from what had happened, but I could keep her from having to parade around the rest of my squad in just her skin and shame. "Can you walk?" I had no right to ask her that, but I couldn't leave her unattended in this room... and I didn't want to stay in here with Nora any longer than I had to. The last thing that I wanted was for her to wake in the room where she'd been tortured - no, I wanted her to wake surrounded by her squad, surrounded by love.

 Not the blood that I was going to bring.

 "Yes. We need to get her out of here." I could hear the determination burning through her voice, and I could see that her eyes were all for Nora... for concern about Nora. It echoed with the thoughts in my chest, and it made me nod. It made me trust her.

  "Take the pistol at the small of my back. We're going." I didn't know if I could trust that she could walk, but I wouldn't discount her. People often thought that I was too physically injured to handle circumstances, and I proved them wrong. Something told me that River, while she didn't have the same lack of a pain radar that I had, did have stubbornness to match it. Something flashed across her features, but I didn't have the time to decipher it. Instead, I shifted forward, towards the door.

 I had a moment to recognize that a figure was standing there - a moment to see the flash of silver in his hands. I had a moment to see that his eyes weren't focused on me, but on Nora in my arms. I had one moment to move, and I was going to make it count. Somewhere in the back of my senses, I heard River scream my name.

  The man who looked just like the one that I'd shot ran forward, his blade aiming at Nora in my arms. I twisted my body so that it bit into my back instead - cool metal felt like scorching heat as it bit into my flesh, but I didn't care about the pain. I didn't care about anything, save for the fact that the man had tried to kill Nora _again_ , and I was impaled and incapable of shifting around to snap his worthless neck. I shifted my gaze up and caught River's gaze.

  I let my fury and determination pour through my eyes, and I beckoned her own to answer. It was a silent message, and it seemed to get through to her, because she raised the pistol without hesitation and fired it off. I could feel the heat of the bullet on my cheek, but the sensation of Ji dropping heavy to the ground and his sword sliding out of my frame was enough to bring a surge of pleasure through me. I knew, of course, that I needed to get my wound tended to. I knew a lot of things.

 But for the moment, all that I knew was that River was _okay_ with me. She dropped to the ground and muttered furiously to the man that she'd shot, stripping off a very familiar looking jacket and tags from around his neck. She tried to stand, and I saw all of the color that remained drain from her face.

  "River?"

  I didn't know if she heard me, because she slumped forward, her arms clutching the jacket that I'd seen Silas wear before as she fell.

  I could see her chest rising and falling - I could tell that she was still breathing. The gunfire was slowly waning, and I heard footsteps approaching. Nora was still in my arms, but I aimed my pistol at the door as they drew closer, shifting my body to stand protectively in front of River.

  "Quinn!" I recognized the voice before Zane slipped around the door, and I saw him look at the bundle in my arms. His brows twitched, anger clearly on his gaze. "Nora?"

  "She's going to be all right." I could see a shudder of relief pass across his body, and his eyes flicked to River on the ground.

  "Is that the other girl that we're here for?"  
   "River, yes. Get her up if you can. We need to get them out of here." My eyes flicked outside of the door. "How's the situation?"

  "No civvies in here. Soldiers, and they all seemed to know what was going on." I could see the fury clear on his face - it spoke to my own, though it was a shadow of what was crawling around inside of me. I nodded. Once. Curt. And I knew what I wanted.

  "Any casualties?" I hated to ask, but I knew that I had to. I knew that we couldn't come out of this unscathed. Zane's eyes dropped, and I knew that there had been. I didn't ask who, not now. "Get River, and get _all_ of our boys out of here."

   "And then?" Zane could tell that there was another order on my tongue, and he was following my command as though I were Silas, as though I was the Captain. in that moment, I didn't mind.

  "Get one of our boys to take their main terminal, and then torch the place." My voice was flat and emotionless. "I want it turned to ash."

  Zane gave one short nod, shifting forward to scoop up River and call out my orders. I didn't care - I went straight for the door, kicking the twins bodies aside as I did. Blood poured down my back, and my bullet wounds hadn't staunched... but I didn't look. I didn't mind. All that I wanted was Nora in a Vertibird, safe in my arms,  and to watch this damn place burn.

 


End file.
